Indicator.



LE. A. TARIEN & 0. P. WERTH.

' INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED APR.11, 1910.

985,855. Patented Mar.7, 1911.

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ELMEE A. TARIEN AND CHARLES E. WER'IH, 0F DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

INDICATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ELMER A. TARIEN and CHARLES F. WERTH, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and Stateof Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inIndicators, of which the following is a specification, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings. 7 I This invention relates toimprovements in street car indicators, and has for its object to providea very simple device of this (than acter which is adapted to be operatedby the motorman or conductor of the car, to suecessively indicate thenames of the streets upon the route over which the car runs.

A further object resides in the provision of suitable means foroperating the indicator whereby the movement of the indicating rolls maybe readily reversed upon the return trip of the car.

A further object is to provide an indicator of the above character whichis highly efficient in operation, is of very simple construction, andmay be manufactured at a low cost.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists of the novelfeatures of construction, combination and arrangement of parts,hereinafter fully described and claimed, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional view of the car, showing our improved indicatingdevice arranged therein; Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of theoperating mechanism; Fig. 3 is a section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig.2; Fig. 4 is an enlarged elevation of the indicator casing showing therolls arranged therein, one side of the casing being removed, and Fig. 5is a section taken on the line 55 of Fig. 4.

Referring in detail to the drawings, 5 indicates a substantiallyrectangular casing which is adapted to be arranged within a car in anyconvenient manner, but is preferably disposed above one of the end doorsthereof, as shown in Fig. 1. This casing is provided with a glass panelin one side, and is adapted to house and protect the movable indicatingcurtain or belt 6. This curtain is secured at its ends to the rollers 7,which are journaled in metallic bearings secured in the opposite ends ofthe casing 5. Av

plate 8 is supported. from the back of the a casing over which theindicating curtain is disposed. This plate presents a smooth fiatsurface, and as the rolls are rotated in a manner to be later described,the curtain carrying the names of the various streets will be drawn tautacross the plate.

Upon one end of each of the rollers 7 a bevel gear 9 is secured. Thesegears mesh with similar gears 10 arranged upon the ends of a verticallydisposed shaft 11 mounted in the bearings 12 secured to the end of thecasing 5. Thus the curtain carrying rolls are rotated in unison and theliability of the curtain slipping upon either of the rollers is therebyprevented.

In the vestibule of the car, an operating shaft 13 is vertically mountedin the bearlngs 14 which are suitably secured to the car frame. Upon oneend of the shaft a gear 15 is secured which meshes with the bevel gear16 secured upon the end of a longitudinally extending shaft 17 mountedin the bearings 18, secured to the roof of the car. The on posite end ofthe shaft 17 also has a bevel gear 19 secured thereon which in turn isin meshing engagement with the teeth of the gear 9 secured to the end ofthe lower cur tam carrying roller 7. The operating shaft 13 extendsdownwardly adjacent to the motorman at one side of his position, and ispreferably arranged in close proximity to the car brake handle so thatit may be conveniently actuated by the motorman. The operating meanscomprises a disk 20 which is rigidly secured upon the shaft 13, and isprovided with a plurality of openings 21. In the present instance threesuch openings are shown which are adapted to receive a locking pin 22carried by a resilient latch bar 23. This locking pin 22 also extendsthrough an operating lever 24: which likewise is loosely mounted uponthe shaft 13. Upon the bearing 14 angularly disposed arms 25 are formed.Each of these arms has fixed in its outer end a vertically disposed stoppin 26 which is adapted to limit the movement of the operating lever,and the latch bar 23.

In the actuation of the operating means, the motorman grasps theoperating lever Patented Mar. *7, 1911. it

and compresses the latch bar 23 until the pin 22 carried thereby isdisposed opposite 7 the operating lever the disk 20 is rotated,

' rollers.

whereby movement is imparted to the shaft 13, and through the shaft 17,and the connecting gears to the curtain rolls 7, whereby the curtain ismoved to indicate the proper street.

Owing to the constantly varying size of the rollers caused by theaccumulation of web on one of them and the lessening amount on theother, the web will consequently be wound upon one roller faster than itis given off by the other thus causing a variation in the angularmovement of the To overcome this difficulty we pro vide the compensatingdevice illustrated in Figs. 4: and 5 of the drawings. This compensatingdevice is one of general application and forms no part of the presentinvention. In order, however, to afford a clear understanding oftheoperation of our device, this compensating gearing may be described asfollows: The beveled pinion 10 upon the upper end of the shaft 11 iscarried by a sleeve 10 loosely mounted on said shaft. A beveled gear 1Ois also formed upon the lower end of this sleeve. A similar gear 10 ismounted upon the shaft 11 for independent rotation. A spider 11 is fiXedupon the shaft 11 and carries the beveled pinions 11 which mesh with thegears 10 and 10 It will thus be obvious that when the two rollers 6 arerotating at sub stantially the same speed, the pinions 11 will be lockedwith the gears 10 and 10 but when the web is drawn from the upper rollerso as to cause its increased rotation, the sleeve 10 carrying the gear10 rotates at a greater speed than the shaft 11, the gear 10 moving uponthe pinions 11*. Then the lower roller rotates at a greater speed thanthe upper roller, the reverse of this action takes place and the pinions11 move upon the gear 10, the gear 11 being movable independently ofsaid pinions.

As shown in the drawings, the position of the stop pins 25 limits themovement of the lever 24, to an arc of 120, and upon the return movementof the lever one of .the openings 21 is disposed in pro-per position toreceive the pin 22 when the latch bar is released, thus again lockingthe lever and the driving disk. The lever 24 is provided in itslongitudinal edges with a notch at to receive the stop pins 26. Themotorman with each actuation of the indicating device moves the lever 24the entire distance between the stop pins which will move the curtain 6a full distance to dispose the street designations upon the face of theboard or plate 8 successively, in order that they may be readilyobserved through the glass front of the casing. When the end of the runof the car is reached, the motorman simply reverses the direction ofmovement of the lever when it is locked with the driving disk, wherebythe curtain is moved in the opposite direction so that the streetdesignations will be properly displayed. 1

From the foregoing, it is believed that the construction and operationof our indicator will be readily understood. The device is comparativelysimple, may be constructed at a low cost and is highly durable andefficient in operation.

Vhile we have shown and described the preferred embodiment of ourinvention, it will be understood that the same is susceptible of manyminor modifications without materially departing from the essentialfeatures or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof.

Having described our invention, what we claim is:

1. In an indicating device of the character described, the combinationwith a casing having rollers mounted therein, a curtain secured to andmovable between the rollers, gearing connecting said rollers for unitaryrotation, of a vertically positioned operating shaft, a shaft disposedbetween and geared to the operating shaft and the roller gearing, adriving disk fixed on the operating shaft, a lever loosely mounted onsaid shaft, a resilient latch bar movably engaged with said lever andadapted to lock the disk and lever together, and stops for limiting themovement of said lever whereby the curtain is moved a predetermineddistance.

2. In an indicating device of the character described, the combinationwith a casing, rollers mounted in said casing, an indicating curtainsecured to and movable with said rollers, gearing connecting the rollersfor unitary movement, of a vertically positioned operating shaft gearedto one of said rollers, a driving disk rigidly secured on said operatingshaft, an operating lever loosely mounted on said shaft, a resilientlatch bar loosely mounted on said shaft, a pin carried by said latch barmovable through the lever, said disk having a plurality of openingstherein to receive one end of said pin, whereby the lever and disk arelocked together, and stop pins adapted to limit the movement of saidlever, whereby the indicating curtain is moved a predetermined distance.

8. In an indicating device of the character described, the combinationwith a casing, rollers mounted in said casing, an indicator secured toand movable between the rollers, a shaft extending between said rollersand geared thereto, of an operating shaft, bearings for said shaft, ashaft geared to said operating shaft and to one of said rollers, adriving disk secured on the operating shaft, an operating lever looselymounted on the shaft, a resilient latch bar, a pin carried by said latchbar movably disposed through the lever, said disk having a plurality ofopenings therein equally spaced apart, one end of said pin being held inone of said openings by said latch bar, whereby the In testimony whereofwe hereunto aflix lever and disk are locked together on the oursignatures in the presence of two lit 10 shaft, diverging arms formedupon one of nesses.

the shaft bearings, having stop pins ar- ELMER A. TARIEN. ranged ontheir ends adapted to engage said CHARLIE F. WERTH. lever and limit itsmovement, whereby the indicating curtain is moved a predetermineddistance.

Witnesses:

JACOB BAUMANN, EUGENE A. DEIMENT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

